The Media Plot to Question Trump's Cognition is in Full Swing

AP Photo/Rick Scuteri

The latest well-coordinated plan among the legacy media to bail out Joe Biden's floundering reelection bid is coming clear this weekend. Biden's significant cognitive decline has become too much for even left-wing media outlets to ignore. The issue shows up repeatedly in the polls, where strong majorities do not believe that Biden is sharp enough to handle his current job, to say nothing of four more years as the leader of the free world. This is not a fixable problem, because Biden will only continue to decline. In response, the press had clearly decided that if they can't make Biden look better, they will need to try to convince the public that Donald Trump is just as bad. They've begun watching him like a hawk, looking for the slightest verbal gaffe they might be able to highlight and claim that he is also in cognitive decline. That opportunity arose during remarks that Trump made at a campaign stop last night. While demanding that Biden take a cognitive test, Trump mixed up the name of former White House Physician Ronny Jackson. The media pounced immediately. (NJ.com)

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You’d think he’d remember his name.

After all, Ronny Jackson is the former White House physician who likely lied about Donald Trump’s weight and health, then became one of the former president’s staunchest supporters as a Texas Congressman.


But a funny thing happened on Saturday night as Trump demanded that President Joe Biden take a cognitive test: The guy who could remember “Person, woman, man, camera, TV” couldn’t remember the name of his former physician.

Awkward.

NJ.com's headline described the slipup as a "humiliating gaffe." Raw Story ran with a similarly mocking headline. But just how bad was Trump's verbal blunder? As usual, Trump was freestyling rather than reading from a prompter or cue cards as Biden always does. While reflecting on the cognitive test that he took while in office, he stumbled over Dr. Ronny Jackson's name, saying, "Doc Ronny. Doc Ronny Johnson. Does everyone know Ronny Johnson, congressman from Texas?"

To be fair, that was a mistake because he clearly meant to say Jackson. But that test was more than five years ago. How many people does Donald Trump meet in an average week? If he had started stammering and fallen silent while trying to dredge up the doctor's name, perhaps there might be some cause for concern, but this just doesn't seem like a huge deal.

Compare his performance to almost any of Joe Biden's recent appearances. Trump goes on for hours at times, covering a range of topics and taking numerous questions on any number of subjects. Biden rarely takes questions and has recently begun lashing out angrily if a reporter dares to veer away from the script. He frequently stalls while delivering even brief remarks. He regularly messes up the names of current world leaders. I can't imagine what would happen if you asked him off the cuff to name a doctor that he had seen five years ago. This is an apples-and-oranges situation.

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Meanwhile, the legacy media is still busy trying to clean up some of Biden's other awkward moments. In the article linked above, the reporter claims that when Joe Biden wandered away during an address by global leaders at the G7 his actions were mischaracterized. They claimed that he was not in fact "wandering off" but instead was, "watching skydivers land with flags from different nations and moved to greet them." It's true that there was a skydiving exhibition taking place and Biden did briefly toss out a thumbs-up sign, but Biden was in the middle of a photo op for the press, lined up with other leaders where questions were scheduled. Without warning, Biden suddenly froze up for a moment, turned, and began slowly meandering toward the landing area. The Prime Minister of Italy had to pursue him, grab him by the elbow, and steer him back to the group. Watch the video and judge for yourself.

I understand that most of the mainstream media despises Donald Trump and they are terrified by how well he's doing in the polls. But no amount of leftist spin is going to convince people that Trump is dealing with any significant amount of cognitive decline and nothing is going to rehabilitate Biden's reputation in that regard either. The two men are competing on entirely different levels.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 20, 2024
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